Monthly Archives: August 2016

Emile Zola: “J’accuse” (“I accuse”)

14 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in Culture, Issue, Justice, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

It has been more than 100 days (and counting) that the fallout of the infidelity saga has impugned upon the 5 human rights defenders who have been unjustly and illegally accused, arrested and detained as prisoners.

– Whereas the freedom and liberty of the protagonists in the saga are not affected,
– Whereas the illegal wiretapping set-up and its broadcasting have never been seriously investigated,
– Whereas the judicial proceedings have never been conducted in such a way that the prosecution has proved its case,
– Whereas the interpretation of texts of laws is always in the mind of the ideologues of the ruling party and has never been discussed or tested either by academicians or people of integrity and politically non-partisan, or even had a jurisprudence,
- Whereas the information on the investigation and the interrogation has been scanty and difficult to confirm or verify,
The fate of the 5 human rights defenders has been abandoned to the whim of autocratic authority and its mob-like rule court.

Everyday that passes is another day of agony due to separation from their family,
– another day where family members suffer the consequences of arbitrary autocratic acts,
– another day that autocracy tightens the screw of repression upon the citizenry in its exercise of freedom and liberty of expression, and
– another day that plunges Cambodia untested democracy and rule of law deeper into the darkness of dictatorship of one-man rule.

Kacvey, it would be unfathomable that your students, who are also citizens and voters, would not want to discuss this politico-judicial charade in political philosophy class;
– it would be highly probable that some of your students could have family ties with some, if not all, of the 5 human rights defenders;
– it would be unthinkable how sharp the moral pain would be in their heart and mind, every time they see on TV screen the 5 human rights defenders dressed in prisoner orange jumpsuit and shackled;
– it is their silent voice that cries out for society to hear “what crime against the society have the 5 human rights defenders committed?”
– “if crime there is, who is the victim of that crime?”, and “what damage to society and people that that crime has caused?”
– “if crime there is, has the autocratic prosecution demonstrated its motive and mode of execution by the 5 accused?”
– “if crime there is, where is the guilty verdict to justify the penitentiary incarceration?”
– “if crime there is, is the punishment commensurate with the degree of crime?”
– “if crime there is, what is the causality between this mock-up crime and the principal commission of infidelity and wiretapping?”

Kacvey, the 4 walls of autocratic injustice in which the 5 human rights defenders are imprisoned are made of nepotism and corruption; it is therefore thicker than the walls of a bank vault that stores the wealth that has been illegally and dishonestly amassed in the name of Hostile Takeover. That wealth runs the course of injustice that currently victimizes and persecutes the 5 human rights defenders and their respective family.

In the wild jungle, beasts live among beasts, and set their own rule of dominance. Why does today’s man’s world resemble so much the jungle of beasts? Maybe because, “Every man has a wild beast within him” (Frederick the Great) or worst, “What an ugly beast the ape, and how like us” (Marcus Tullius Cicero.)

Kacvey, you may wish to stimulate and widen your students thinking and to strengthen their analytical approach towards this issue by assigning them to study Emile Zola’s “J’accuse.” Indeed there is no resemblance in the actual case of Dreyfus with the case of the 5 human rights defenders, but the notion of “mock-up crime”, “injustice” and “unethical behavior” by the authority is well convergent to both cases. The French version of “J’accuse” is from atramenta.net, the English version, “I accuse“, from georgetown.edu. Albert Camus, once, said: “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world” and as a consequence of his autocratic conduct, many honest and innocent people pay a very high price for their life.

Let make a difference in solidarity with FreeThe5Kh!

=====
Updates:
1) In early November 2016, the American Bar Association issued a report Trial Observation Report in the Case of Ny Chakrya
2) On 7 December 2016, The Cambodia Daily posted a breaking news: “Adhoc Officers, Election Official, Commune Chief to Be Released, CNRP Says.” Let wait and see how the next few days/weeks will tell.
3) On 25 January 2017, the United Nations Human Rights issued a Press Release: Cambodia: UN experts call for the immediate release of five human rights defenders
4) On 7 July 2017, Press briefing note on Turkey, China and Cambodia

un sén, ça vaut quoi?

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in Culture, Social, Stories

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Mon cher Kacvey,

Le monde est inondé de dollars américains, d’euros, de livres sterling, de yens japonais et de yuans chinois que même le Cambodge se démembre de sa souveraineté et de son indépendance monétaire incarnée par le riel. Pauvre de riel! Qui des Khmers se réfère aux riels dans les transactions quotidiennes, si faibles de valeur soient-elles?

Au Cambodge, alors que le dollar américain est roi, depuis les marchands sur le trottoir jusqu’à la fabuleuse fortune ramassée par Hostile Takeover, le riel est l’argent que seul les mendiants ont le privilège et l’honneur de le recevoir des mains avarement et discriminatoirement généreuses.

Kacvey, vous vous souvenez sûrement des billets de banque et de la monnaie en piastres émis par la Banque d’Indochine jusqu’en 1952, et à partir de 1953, des riels par l’Institut d’Emission des Etats du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam. Tant d’étés ont passé depuis et autant de tempêtes de larmes et de sang sur le sol Khmer!

Ah! ce fameux billet de “un” riel, à fond jaune et à l’effigie du jeune roi Sihanouk, si précieux et si valeureux pour les petits écoliers de l’époque! Ce riel, dont les sous-unités sont des “sén” en petite pièces en aluminium, aussi appelées “kak”! Posséder quelques “séns” dans la poche sur le chemin de l’école, c’était royal et suprême élation! Un sén (muoy sén or muoy kak), un bonbon; deux séns (pi kak), une tige de glace; trois séns (béy kak), une boule de glace rabotée au sirop “toeuk kâk poutt”; quatre séns (buon kak), une poignée de grains de lotus sec et grillés (krâliing chouk); cinq séns (pram kak), une brochette de bananes grillées “chék aing” etc … Petits délices à bon prix enfantin accompagnant la nonchalance, la gaîté ingénue et l’enfance ordinaire!

Est-ce de la nostalgie irrécompensable et inutile? Non. C’est plutôt de la résurrection de la question de la valeur de l’argent dans le contexte et la conjoncture générale actuels khmers. Si l’adoption des dollars américains fait l’essence de l’économie individuelle et nationale, elle rend les Khmers assujettis à une valeur étrangère qu’eux mêmes ne savent ni la raison ni le bien-fondé. Les Khmers apprécient l’effigie de Franklin, Grant, Jackson, Hamilton, Lincoln, Jefferson et Washington mieux que celles imprimées sur les riels courants. Et l’on chuchote dans les couloirs de la banque comme quoi les négociants sont encouragés à accepter les yuans chinois dans les transactions à caractère touristique. Un maître, ça ne suffit pas; il en faut deux, et même trois.

Alors, Kacvey, posons-nous quelques questions pour satisfaire notre curiosité ou celle de nos amis qui en manifestent autant:
– Si un sén (muoy kak) pouvait, jadis, rendre un gamin heureux, “un sén” d’aujourdhui vaudrait quoi alors, en terme réel et courant?
– un sén, un gamin de l’ère des téléphones intelligents est-il au courant de son existence?
– un sén, vaut-il combien par rapport à un cent américain?
– un sén, est-il négligeable par rapport à un centime d’euro?
– un sén, est-il encore apprecié des Khmers?
– un sén, a-t-il encore de la confiance des Khmers?
– un sén, est-il encore considéré comme instrument monétaire viable?
– un sén, la banque l’accepte-t-elle dans un compte courant ou d’épargne?
– un sén, peut-on le retirer de la machine à sous ou à ATM?
– un sén, dans un bol du mendiant, le-ramasserait-t-il?
– un sén, sur le marché Asean, a-t-il encore de la crédibilité ou plutôt la moquerie?
– un sén, ça équivaut à quoi à Beijing en yuan chinois ou à Hanoi en dong vietnamien?
– un sén par ici, un sén par là, ça fait-il un riel utile?
– un sén de demain se dévalue-t-il en fonction de la pourriture politico-économique?
– un sén, qui le garderait dans son sac à main, sa poche, ses chaussons ou sous son matelas?
– un sén, ça peut acheter combien de “like” en ligne?

Quand un sén n’a plus de valeur ou de respect monétaire, tous les autres séns de la terre connaîtront le même sort. Alors, pourquoi ne pas abolir cette inutilité de “sén”, “un” ou “cent” ou autres, et adopter une nouvelle unité qui soit digne de l’indépendance, de la souveraineté et de la fierté du peuple et de l’essence khmers!

Mencius and King Hui of Liang

01 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in Governance, History, Justice

≈ 1 Comment

My dear Kacvey,

What a month of July that has just flown away! So far, it was the most brutal and saddest month of the Year of Hanuman with Hostile Takeover, a political assassination, the sell-out and fall-out in Vientiane on “South China Sea,” the unforgettable and most memorable world longest funerals cortege of Mr. Kem Ley, the movements of troops and military trucks and tanks crisscrossing the country for whatever imaginary and fantasy reasons or scary tactics… Is this just a prelude to more of the same or worst?

In your political philosophy class, your students have been all along right when they asked you what would be the rationale or rationales for the current gloomy and sullen political atmosphere throughout the land of the Khmer. As there is more than one way to skin a cat than choking it with cream, here is “one way” to look for/at it; it is through Mengzi’s wisdom.

Mengzi (孟子), who is known to the Western world as Mencius,  wrote the following passage (16 to 22) extracted from “King Hui of Liang, Part I” (梁惠王上):

16. ‘Your dogs and swine eat the food of men, and you do not make restrictive arrangements. There are people dying from famine on the roads, and you do not issue the stores of your granaries for them. When people die, you say, “It is not owing to me; it is owing to the year.” In what does this differ from  then saying – “It was not I; it was the weapon?” Let your Majesty cease to lay the blame on the year, and instantly from all the nation the people will come to you.’
16. 狗彘食人食而不知检， 涂有饿莩而不知发；人死， 则曰：“非我也。岁也。” 是何异於刺人而杀之，曰：“非我也，兵也。” 王无罪岁，斯天下之民至焉。

17. King Hui of Liang said, ‘I wish quietly to receive your instructions.’
17. 梁惠王曰： 【寡人愿安乘教。】

18. Mencius replied, ‘Is there any difference between killing a man with a stick and with a sword?’
18. 孟子对曰： 【杀人以挺与刃，有以异乎？】

19. The king said, ‘There is no difference!’
19. 曰：【无以异也。】

20. ‘Is there any difference between doing it with a sword and with the style of government?’
20. 【以刃异政，有以异乎？】

21. ‘There is no difference,’ was the reply.
21. 【无以异也。】

22. Mencius then said, ‘In your kitchen there is fat meat; in your stables there are fat horses. But your people have the look of hunger, and on the wilds there are those who have died of famine. This is leading on beasts to devour men. Beasts devour one another, and men hate them for doing so. When a prince, being the parent of his people, administers his government so as to be chargeable with leading on beasts to devour men, where is his parental relation to the people?’
22. 曰： 【庖有肥肉，厩有肥马，民有饥色，野有饿莩，此率獸而食人也。獸相食，且人恶之。为民父母，行政不免於率獸而食人。恶在其为民父母也。】

By the way, your students with “Meng” or “Méng” as name or surname would be delighted to be “nominally” associated with such a great thinker!